Remove files

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I know that rm -i, asks a user before removing a file. What I need to accomplish is removing files from a different directory without switching to that directory. Example: I'm currently in directory dog and I want to remove all the files of a certain name in directory cat, but from within the dog directory. Please help.

2

use the full path

rm /foo/bar/cat/other.file
3

Do you mean:

cd dog
rm -i /path/to/cat/pattern-to-be-removed*
4

I'll try this.:cool:

---------- Post updated at 10:47 PM ---------- Previous update was at 08:39 PM ----------

Ok I have to write a script to make this work:

!#/bin/bash

read -p "Enter week you would like to delete files: " $num
rm -i /week$num/smiley*

not sure why it doesn't work. I'm working from a week5 directory and it tells me that the directory doesn't exists.

5

the first line should be

#!/bin/bash

and your read statment should look like this -- no $ in the variable name

read -p "Enter week you would like to delete files: " num
1 Like
6

Unless you're on a very special system, rm /week$i... probably won't work,
if you need to access the week5's parent directory, use ..(double .). Here are a few examples:

week5$ ls

[list of files inside week5 directory]
week5$ ls ..

[list of files in the parent folder]
week5$ ls ../week3

[list of files inside week3 directory, relatively from week5]
week5$ cd ..
[Go up to the parent]
parent$